


The Thinning of the Thicket

by firbolging



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Character Study, SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 72
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-23 18:02:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20012515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firbolging/pseuds/firbolging
Summary: Learning slowly was learning nonetheless.





	The Thinning of the Thicket

Learning slowly was learning nonetheless.

Fjord was a slow learner. Fjord was learning.

These were simultaneous truths, but not equal ones; the slowing often prompting stumbling. It was not a cautious snail’s pace, but a push ever-onwards through a thicket. Eggshells of newborn knowledge lay scattered like breadcrumbs in his wake, though. In spite of the shortness of journey to the eye of a crow, he was proud of the crumbs anyhow.

So he learnt.

To trust, to suspect, and to trust again. To wield, to lose, and to rise to the right occasion. To love, to love, and to love.

Growing up, love had been a rationed thing. Orphans, cautious or not, had little variety of purchase to fix their hearts upon.

The ocean was no different.

Nor was what came after.

That much was clear as misplaced trust nearly beat every last drop of blood from his body.

The same on the same on the same.

And then a firm arm pulling him to safety; a burly creature waging the health of the scrawny man beneath.

That was different.

And then a glove, a dagger, an axe, and more.

It wasn’t just different, it was an entire shift in the rules of reality.

He glanced over his shoulder and saw, for the first time, the crumbs wound back beyond sight. Ahead, the thicket was thinning and flowering.

**Author's Note:**

> once again, this was supposed to be something else entirely but it wound up here


End file.
